Using OpenGL for panoramic viewer

I’m fully new to OpenGL and I was assigned a project in which I must implement a panoramic viewer meant for an SGI infinite reality system. The idea is to navigate in a spherical geometry with the help of the wand.
If I had a clue which tools to use, I would like to create the spherical geometry, place the jpeg panoramic images onto this geometry, and then use an interface to navigate in this geometry with the help of the wand.
Please give me clues on whether or not this is a good approach, and how to go about doing this !!!